1907 IV ] Bext > Summer Birds of Southwestern Saskatchewan. 413 



The hills in the interior were largely covered with fair sized pines 

 and spruces; we were told that large tracts of heavy coniferous 

 timber existed here; several piles of large logs that we saw and the 

 log cabins of some of the settlers bore testimony to the truth of 

 this report. Many of the birds seen in the Cypress Hills Ave re 

 common to the whole region but the following species were noted 

 here which were not seen elsewhere : Western Wood Pewee, Alder 

 and Wright's Flycatchers, American Crossbill, White-crowned 

 Sparrow, Pink-sided Junco, Orange-crowned, Audubon's and 

 Macgillivray's Warblers and Alma's Thrush. 



The most striking features of the whole region, the real ornitho- 

 logical wonders of the great Northwest, were the breeding grounds 

 of the water-fowl. In my attempt to give some adequate idea of 

 these marvelous wild-fowl nurseries I cannot do better than en- 

 deavor to describe two or three typical sloughs and islands that 

 we visited, though I realize that my words cannot but fail to con- 

 vey the impressions I received, for such things must be seen in 

 order to be appreciated. 



Many Island Lake was in reality a many island marsh, irreg- 

 ular in outline and approximately 6 miles in diameter, consisting 

 of a series of wet meadows, low grassy islands, deep sloughs full 

 of bulrushes or cattail flags, shallow sloughs overgrown with long 

 grass and open pond like areas. We could drive from one island 

 to another by crossing the shallower sloughs at favorable spots, 

 but often narrowly escaped being badly mired. The islands were 

 so nearly indistinguishable from the marshes that we could form 

 no idea as to their number or extent. Some of the more clearly 

 defined islands in the more open portions of the lake formed suit- 

 able breeding grounds for California and Ring-billed Gulls, Com- 

 mon Terns and Avocets where they could make their nests on the 

 higher portions or along the shores on dry ground. Killdeers, 

 Spotted Sandpipers and Willets were evidently breeding on some 

 of the islands; Wilson's Phalaropes were abundant, we found their 

 nests on the grassy islands and saw large flocks of females flying 

 about over the marshes ; a number of Yellow-legs were associated 

 with them and possibly some of them were breeding here. A 

 cloud of Franklin's Gulls were hovering over an extensive deep- 

 water slough where we found them established in a large breeding 



